Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department endorses the provisions outlined in the Charter for Sustainable British Steel, published on 16 January 2015.

We are supporting the sourcing of sustainable steel in our procurement guidance, which have been issued to all UK Government Departments.

We were the first EU Member State to take advantage of new flexibilities which allow wider considerations, such as social impacts, job impacts and staff safety in procurement decisions, to be taken into account. This allows the true competitive value of UK steel to be recognised.

No-one should be in any doubt that – across all of Government’s major procurements – we are working hard to make sure that wherever possible, British steel makers have the best chance of competing for, and winning, contracts.